Dreaming of Julie, training at Churchill Downs, won the Gulfstream Oaks by 213/4 lengths. / Bill Luster/Special to The Courier-Journal

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The Courier-Journal

She might not have been the “tremendous machine” of Secretariat lore, but Dreaming of Julia has earned her share of praise since a stunning runaway victory in her last race.

The latest came Tuesday when the 3-year-old filly was made the 3-1 favorite for what many consider a deep and talented field for the Longines Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs.

Trainer Todd Pletcher already has called Dreaming of Julia one of the best fillies of her generation, a notion she backed up with a 21¾-length romp in the Gulfstream Oaks on March 30.

“I think the Gulfstream Oaks showed how good she can be, but there’s no mistaking the Gulfstream Oaks for the Kentucky Oaks in the prestige that it carries,” Pletcher said of Dreaming of Julia, a daughter of A.P. Indy out of the Wild Rush mare Dream Rush. “I think it will be another step in defining her career, but we already know she’s a super filly.”

Pletcher trains four of the 11 fillies entered in the $1 million, Grade I Oaks, which is set for 5:45 p.m. Friday.

Beholder and Unlimited Budget were made the co-second choices at 7-2. Midnight Lucky is the fourth choice at 9-2.

Beholder, trained by Richard Mandella, won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita last November and is 2-1-0 in three starts this year. Unlimited Budget, trained by Pletcher, is undefeated in four career races, including the Grade II Fair Grounds Oaks in her last start.

But no Oaks filly was more impressive in her last start than Dreaming of Julia, who was third to Beholder in the Juvenile Fillies and made her 3-year-old debut with a second-place finish behind Live Lively in the Grade II Davona Dale on Feb. 23 at Gulfstream.

Dreaming of Julia got her revenge a month later in the Gulfstream Oaks, stalking Live Lively on the backstretch and breezing past her entering the turn. She and jockey John Velazquez cruised home, covering 11/8 miles in 1:484/5.

“The thing that was remarkable to me is that she seemed to do it effortlessly,” Pletcher said. “She wasn’t hard-pressed in the end. John Velazquez wasn’t riding her hard through the lane. She just kind of kept opening up.”

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Jerry Brown of Thoro-Graph has been compiling speed figures — based on time of the race, weight carried, ground lost, wind and track speed — since 1982 and awarded Dreaming of Julia the best number he’d ever given. The New York Times reported the number was negative eight, with the lower the figure the better.

“It’s just an absurd figure for any horse, let alone a 3-year-old filly early in the year,” Brown told the Times.

Garrett O’Rourke is the U.S. manager for Juddmonte Farms, which owns Oaks hopeful Close Hatches. He called Dreaming of Julia’s Gulfstream Oaks performance “absolutely phenomenal.”

“I think she’d win the Derby if she reproduced that form in the Derby,” he said. “You look at the sheet figures, and it was a Zenyatta-like performance. If she reproduces that, I expect we’ll be running for second. The best we can hope for is that she’ll bounce out of it.”

Pletcher admitted some concern about the bounce effect, in which a horse follows an outstanding race with a poor performance.

“I think it’s good we’ve had five weeks since that effort,” he said. “If she does bounce, how much? If she ran the fastest Thoro-Graph race of all time, she might be able to bounce four or five points and still win.”